Single chip microcontroller including battery management and protection

ABSTRACT

A microcontroller is disclosed. The microcontroller comprises a processor system and a high voltage interface coupled to the processor system and adapted to be coupled to a battery. The microcontroller further includes a battery management system for monitoring the battery and managing the battery based upon the monitoring of the battery. The microcontroller is a single chip. This one-chip solution saves design cost and PCB space in addition to broadening the functionality of the smart battery application. With the accuracy of the microcontroller, the charge status of the battery can be predicted more accurately and therefore effectively increases actual battery capacity.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/335,057, filed Jan. 18, 2006 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,759,902, whichclaims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/645,460, filedJan. 19, 2005, which are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a microcontroller and morespecifically to a single chip microcontroller which includes a batterymanagement and protection system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The demand for portable applications such as laptop PCs, cell phones,and digital cameras is ever-increasing. These applications keep gettingsmaller and more advanced with tougher price competition every day. Noapplication component can escape these toughening requirements, and thevital application power source, the battery, is certainly no exception.Battery capacity development is lagging behind the increasing demandsfrom the application and control of the chemical reaction inside thebattery is subject to severe safety requirements, making it difficult topush the limits of the chemical technology. To make life even moredifficult for battery vendors, the battery is. Expected to shrink insize and price along with the rest of the application.

Advanced battery packs, or smart batteries, contain a large amount ofelectronic components. This includes fail-safe circuitry to ensure thatthe battery cell is not damaged or dangerous to the user; monitoringcapabilities and logic to interpret battery conditions and estimatecharge left depending on battery load; and communication with the hostapplication. Current smart battery applications are implemented using atleast two integrated circuits: a microcontroller for battery managementand an analog front-end to ensure battery protection and measurements.In addition, some require a third chip, an EEPROM containing dataspecific to the battery chemistry, necessary for charge left estimationand other monitoring parameters. These solutions are costly and take upboard space.

In addition, rechargeable battery cells typically have a low currentcapability. For applications where high instant energy is needed, thisproblem is overcome by using many cells in series. This results in ahigher voltage allowing a higher energy with a lower current. The highervoltage is a problem for standard semiconductors as these typically canhandle voltages between 2-5 volts. Smart battery vendors solve the highvoltage input/output problem by using separate driver circuits. Thisadds to the cost, weight, and complexity of the system.

Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for overcoming theabove-identified issues. The present invention addresses such a need.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A microcontroller is disclosed. The microcontroller comprises aprocessor system and a high voltage interface coupled to the processorsystem and adapted to be coupled to a battery. The microcontrollerfurther includes a battery management system for monitoring the batteryand managing the battery based upon the monitoring of the battery. Themicrocontroller is a single chip. This one-chip solution saves designcost and PCB space in addition to broadening the functionality of thesmart battery application. With the accuracy of the microcontroller, thecharge status of the battery can be predicted more accurately andtherefore effectively increases actual battery capacity.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the microcontroller inaccordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a voltage regulator inaccordance with the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one embodiment of an FET control system inaccordance with the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a schematic diagram of an operating circuit utilizing the FETcontrol system in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 4 is one embodiment of a diagram of a cell balancing FETs inaccordance with the present invention.

FIG. 5 is one embodiment of a voltage ADC in accordance with the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a CC-ADC.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a low power band-gap voltagereference in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of the battery protection CPU interfacein accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates generally to a microcontroller and morespecifically to a single chip microcontroller which includes a batterymanagement and protection system. The following description is presentedto enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the inventionand is provided in the context of a patent application and itsrequirements. Various modifications to the preferred embodiments and thegeneric principles and features described herein will be readilyapparent to those skilled in the art. Thus, the present invention is notintended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accordedthe widest scope consistent with the principles and features describedherein.

A system and method in accordance with the present invention providesfor a single chip device which includes battery management andprotection. In a single die, the microcontroller includes a centralprocessing unit and a voltage regulator capable of being powereddirectly from a multiple cell battery. The microcontroller also includesanalog to digital converters tailored for battery monitoring, highvoltage charge and discharge FET drivers, cell balancing capabilities,and independent battery protection circuitry. This one-chip solutionsaves design cost and PCB space in addition to broadening thefunctionality of the smart battery application. With the accuracy of themicrocontroller, the charge status of the battery can be predicted moreaccurately. The more that is known about the charge status of thebattery, the more the battery cell can be allowed to be depleted beforereaching the level where the cell itself starts to be damaged.Accordingly, the actual capacity of the battery is increased.

The microcontroller features a high voltage input/output, which greatlyhelps reduce the total part count in the system. The microcontrolleralso includes an internal voltage regulator. The regulator enablesoperation of the microcontroller within a predetermined voltage range(i.e., from 4 volts to 25 volts). The analog to digital converter inputchannels can measure battery cell voltages as high as 25 volts,eliminating an external high voltage analog front-end. The device alsoprovides a plurality of internal FET drivers capable of computing 25Vlevels, so no external FET drivers are required.

The battery monitoring capabilities of the microcontroller are tailoredto smart batteries. The battery monitoring capabilities include avoltage analog to digital converter that at 12 volts DC provides for +−1least significant (LSB) maximum error which provides good voltagemeasurements across the cells of the battery. A dedicated fuel gaugingcurrent sensing ADC provides continuous current monitoring at a highresolution (such as 18-bit resolution) and high accuracy. The highaccuracy of the microcontroller battery monitoring is made possible byan on-chip voltage reference with +−0.1% error after calibration. Anexample of this type of calibration is described, for example, in U.S.application Ser. No. 10/795,027, entitled “Method and Apparatus ofTemperature Compensation for an Integrated Circuit Chip Using On-ChipSensor and Computation Means,” filed on Mar. 4, 2004 and incorporated byreference in its entirety herein. The voltage and current measurementsmake it possible to estimate the charge left in the battery veryaccurately, allowing an application to draw more energy from thebattery. It is known that a cell of the battery can be damaged if it isdepleted below a certain voltage level. However, if this level isreliably known, it is safe to allow depletion very close to this levelwithout risking cell damage. If the battery's state-of-charge isreliably known, it is possible to push the safe limit further towardsdepletion. With less refined measurement equipment, a guardband must beinserted into the estimate to ensure that the user will be able to shutdown reliably. This guardband represents energy that could be used ifthe estimate really were to be trusted. A microcontroller in accordancewith the present invention supplies the required accuracy to make use ofthis energy.

To describe the features of the present invention in more detail, refernow to the following discussion in conjunction with the accompanyingfigures. The present invention will be described in the context of aparticular microcontroller; however, one of ordinary skill in the artrecognizes that the features of the present invention could be utilizedin a variety of devices and that use would be within the spirit andscope of the present invention. A device that incorporates the featuresof the present invention is a Smart Battery AVR (ATmega 406),manufactured by Atmel. The ATmega 406 is described in an ATmega 406Preliminary Complete Document dated June 2005, which is incorporated byreference in its entirety herein.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the microcontroller 100 inaccordance with the present invention. The microcontroller 100 in oneembodiment includes the following elements: a processor, data bus 118,in-system programmable Flash with read-while-write capabilities, anEEPROM 134, an SRAM 132, a plurality of general purpose workingregisters (not shown), a plurality of general purpose I/O lines (notshown), a plurality of high-voltage I/O lines (not shown), a JTAGinterface 139 for on-chip debugging support and programming, twoflexible timer/counters 147 and 148 with pulse width modulation andcompare modes, a wake-up timer 136, an SM-bus compliant two wireinterface module 142, internal and external interrupts, a programmablewatchdog timer 124 with internal oscillator 122, and four softwareselectable power saving modes. The microcontroller 100 also includesoscillator circuits/clock generation 120, power supervision circuit 126,and a charger detect circuit 128. The data bus 118 is coupled to ports138, 140, 144 and 142.

The microcontroller 100 further includes a voltage regulator 102, a FETcontrol circuitry 104, dedicated battery protection circuitry 106,integrated cell balancing FETs 108, high-voltage analog front-end, andtwo ADCs 110 and 114 with on-chip voltage reference 112 for battery fuelgauging.

In one embodiment, the CPU 116 combines a rich instruction set with theplurality of general purpose working registers. All of the registers aredirectly connected to the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) (not shown),allowing two independent registers to be accessed in one singleinstruction executed in one clock cycle. The resulting architecture ismore code efficient while achieving throughputs up to ten times fasterthan conventional CISC microcontrollers.

The idle mode stops the CPU 116 while allowing the other chip functionto continue functioning. The power-down mode allows the voltageregulator 102, battery protection circuitry 106, watchdog timer 124, andwake-up timer 136 to operate, while disabling all other chip functionsuntil the next interrupt or hardware reset. In power-save mode, thewake-up timer 136, battery protection circuitry 106 and the CC-ADC 114continues to run.

The on-chip Flash memory 130 allows the program memory to bereprogrammed in-system, by a conventional non-volatile memory programmeror by an on-chip boot program running on the CPU 116. A boot program canuse any interface to download the application program in the Flashmemory. Software in the boot Flash 130 will continue to run while theapplication Flash section is updated, providing true read-while-writeoperation. By combining the CPU 116 with the Flash memory 130, ADCs 110and 114, dedicated battery protection circuitry 106, cell balancing FETs108, and a voltage regulator 102 on a monolithic chip, themicrocontroller 100 provides a highly flexible and cost effectivesolution for battery applications.

The voltage regulator 102 operates over a wide range of voltages, forexample, 4.0-25 volts. This voltage is regulated to a constant supplyvoltage of nominally, for example, 3.3 volts for the integrated logicand analog functions.

The battery protection circuitry 106 monitors the battery voltage andcharge/discharge current to detect illegal conditions and protect thebattery from these when required. The illegal conditions are deepunder-voltage during discharging, short-circuit during discharging andover-current during charging and discharging.

The integrated cell-balancing FETs 108 allow cell balancing algorithmsto be implemented in software.

To describe the features of the microcontroller 100 in more detail,refer now to the following description in conjunction with theaccompanying figures.

High Voltage I/O.

For battery monitoring and management devices several high voltageinputs and outputs are provided:

Input to voltage regulator. This input provides power to the devicedrawn directly from the battery, in the range of 4-25 volts.

Input to voltage ADC for individual cell voltage measurements.

Input to detect the presence of a battery charger.

High Voltage Open Drain Output (PCO).

Outputs to charge; discharge, and pre-charge FETs.

The high voltage technology makes it possible to integrate Flash programmemory and logic as well as accurate analog circuitry on the same die ashigh-voltage tolerant I/O. The microcontroller 100 is high voltage (25volts) tolerant, making it appropriate for multiple cell batteries.

Voltage Regulator 102

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a voltage regulator 102 inaccordance with the present invention. Modern semiconductors typicallyrun at power supply in the range of 2 to 5 volts. A battery supplying upto 25 volts can thus not source the semiconductor directly. Themicrocontroller 100 is powered from the battery through the internalvoltage regulator 102. The input to the regulator 102 is allowed to varyfrom 4 to 25 volts. This voltage is regulated down to 3.3 v internally,which is a suitable level for the internal logic, low voltage I/O lines,and analog circuitry.

To minimize power consumption during inactive periods, the voltageregulator optionally contains a power consumption control module 202.When the microcontroller 100 enters low power modes, the voltageregulator 102 will reduce the consumption in the regulator itself,further contributing to low power consumption. An external decouplingcapacitor 206 of IJ-IF or larger is provided for operation of thevoltage regulator 102.

Battery Management

A smart battery will not only monitor battery parameters, it will alsomanage the environment of the battery according to these parameters. Themicrocontroller 100 provides battery charging algorithms, cellbalancing, and communication with the host application to manage andprotect the battery pack.

FET Control 104

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one embodiment of an FET control 104 inaccordance with the present invention. FIG. 3A is a schematic diagram ofan operating circuit utilizing FED control system in accordance with thepresent invention. Referring to FIGS. 1, 3 and 3A together, in additionto the FET disable control signals from the battery protection circuitry106, the CPU may disable the Charge FET (C-FET) 352, the Discharge FET(D-FET) 354, or both, by writing to the FET control and status register302. Note that the CPU 116 is never allowed to enable a FET that isdisabled by the battery protection circuitry 106.

The pulse width modulator (PWM) output from the 8-bit timer/counter 0,signal OC0B, can be configured to drive the C-FET 352 via FET driver310, Precharge FET (PC-FET) driver 312 or both directly. This can beuseful for controlling the charging of the battery cells. The PWM isconfigured by the 2:0 bits in the registers. Note that the OC0B pins donot need to be configured as an output. This means that the PWM outputcan be used to drive the C-FET 352 and/or the PC-FET 350 withoutoccupying the OCOB-pin.

If C-FET 352 is disabled and D-FET 354 enabled, discharge current willrun through the body-drain diode of the C-FE T 352 and vice versa. Toavoid the potential heat problem from this situation, software mustensure that D-FET 354 is not disabled when a charge current is flowing,and that C-FET 352 is not disabled when a discharge current is flowing.

If the battery has been deeply discharged, large surge currents mayresult when a charger is connected. In this case, it is recommended tofirst pre charge the battery through a current limiting resistor. Forthis purpose, the microcontroller 100 provides a Precharge FET 350(PC-FET) control output. This output is default enabled.

If the microcontroller 100 has entered the power-off mode, all FETcontrol outputs will be disabled. When a charger is connected, the CPU116 will wake up. When waking up from power-off mode, the C-FET 352 andD-FET 354 control outputs will remain disabled while PC-FET 350 isdefault enabled. When the CPU 116 detects that the cell voltages haverisen enough to allow normal charging, it should enable the C-FET 352and D-FET 354 control outputs and disable the PC-FET 350 control output.If the current battery protection (CBP) which will be described indetail hereinafter, has been activated, the current protection timerwill ensure a hold-off time of 1 second before software can re-enablethe external FETs.

Cell Balancing 108

FIG. 4 is one embodiment of a diagram of a cell balancing FETs 108 inaccordance with the present invention. The microcontroller 100incorporates cell-balancing FETs 402 a-402 d. The microcontroller 100provides one cell balancing FET 402 a-404 d for each battery cell. TheFETs 402 a-402 d are directly controlled by application software,allowing the cell balancing algorithms to be implemented in software. Inone embodiment, the FETs 402 a-404 d are connected in parallel with theindividual battery cells. The cell balancing FETs 402 a-402 d aredisabled in the power-off mode.

Typical current through the cell balancing FETs 402 a-402 d (T_(CB)) is2 mA. The cell balancing FETs 402 a-402 d are controlled by the cellbalancing control register 406. In this embodiment, neighboring FETscannot be simultaneously enabled. If trying to enable two neighboringFETs, both will be disabled.

SMBuS™ 118

In the PC battery pack application, SMBus (System Management Bus) is thestandard for communication with the PC. The microcontroller 100 featuresa two-wire serial interface compatible with the SMBus standard.

-   -   Simple but powerful and flexible communication interface, only        two bus lines needed    -   Both master and slave operation supported    -   Device can operate as transmitter or receiver    -   7-bit address space allows up to 128 different slave addresses    -   Multi-master arbitration support    -   Operates on 4 MHz clock, achieving up to 100 kHz data transfer        speed    -   Slew-rate limited output drivers    -   Noise suppression circuitry rejects spikes on bus lines    -   Fully programmable slave address with general call support    -   Address recognition causes wake-up when the CPU is in sleep mode

The SMBus interface can be used to upgrade the program code using theCPU's self-programming capabilities.

Battery Parameters

As before described, the microcontroller 100 includes an EEPROM 134 fordata storage. It is organized as a separate data space, in which singlebytes can be read and written. This data space is intended for storageof key parameters vital to the battery application.

Voltage Measurements

Individual cell voltages within the battery require differential ADCmeasurements. To adjust the level of the measured cell voltage to thatof the ADC, an internal gain is provided. Single-ended channels areutilized to measure other parameters such as the regulated voltage, andtemperature at various locations inside the battery pack.

Voltage ADC 110

FIG. 5 is one embodiment of a voltage ADC 110 in accordance with thepresent invention. The V-ADC 110 of this embodiment comprises aplurality of differential channels, an input multiplexer 502 forreceiving differential channels, a 12 bit sigma delta ADC 504, a V-ADCcontrol system 506 for communicating with the input mux 502 and thesigma-delta ADC 504. V-ADC control and status register 508 receivingdata from and providing data to the data bus 116. The V-ADC control andstatus register 508 also receives data from and provides data to theV-ADC control 506. The V-ADC 110 also includes a V-ADC data register 510which receives data from the sigma-delta ADC 504 and provides data tothe data bus 116. The four differential channels for cell voltagemeasurements (PV1-NV, PV2-PV1, PV3-PV2, PV4-PV3) are scaled to complywith the full scale range of the V-ADC. In addition, there are sixsingle ended channels referenced to signal ground. One channel is formeasuring the internal die temperature sensor (VTEMP), four channels arefor measuring the pins at port A for cell temperature monitoring(ADC3-ADC0) and one channel (ADC4) is for measuring the internalregulated voltage VREG. The ADC-4 input is also scaled to comply withthe full scale range of the V-ADC.

To obtain accurate cell voltage measurements, calibration registers forthe individual cell voltage gain in the analog front-end are provided. Afactory calibration value is stored in the register, and a V-ADCconversion of a cell voltage is scaled with the correspondingcalibration value to correct for gain error in the analog front-end.Typically this calibration occurs via software.

Counting Electrons

A PC battery pack is under constant abuse; it is constantly beingdepleted and then recharged at several levels of load. The smart batteryis expected to tell how long it will be able to sustain the current loadbefore it is depleted at any given time. In order to provide thisservice to the end user, the battery needs to know exactly how muchenergy has been drained from the battery so that this amount can bededucted from the full charge capacity of the pack. Once the remainingbattery capacity is determined, a charge left algorithm can estimate thetime left on the existing load. Calibration at various voltage points onthe charge curve is not accurate enough; the smart battery has toactively log and count current charged into and discharged from thebattery.

As before mentioned, the microcontroller 100 also includes a dedicatedCoulomb counting analog-to-digital converter (CC-ADC) 114 optimized forCoulomb counting to sample the charge or discharge current flowingthrough the external sense resistor. This type of ADC is described incopending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/043,669 [3446P], entitled“Current Sensing Analog to Digital Converter and Method of Use,” andassigned to the assignee of the present application.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a CC-ADC 114. The CC-ADC114 includes a sigma-delta modulator 602, decimation filters 604 and606, a current comparator 608, a regular current IRQ level 610, acontrol and status register 612 and an 8-bit data bus 118. Thesigma-delta modulator 602 provides data to a decimation filter 604.Decimation filter 604 provides data to decimation filter 606, thecurrent comparator 608 and the 8-bit databus 118. The regular currentIRQ level 610 receives data from the 8-bit databus 118 and provides datato the 8-bit databus 118 and the current comparator 608. A control andstatus register 612 receives data from the 8-bit databus 118, andprovides data to decimation filters 604 and 606. Decimation filter 606receives data from the control and status register 612 and fromdecimation filter 604, and provides data to the 8-bit databus 118. Twodifferent output values are provided: instantaneous current andaccumulate current. The instantaneous current output has a shortconversion time at the cost of lower resolution. The accumulate currentoutput provides a highly accurate current measurement for Coulombcounting.

The accumulate current output is a high-resolution, high accuracy outputwith programmable conversion time. The converted value is an accuratemeasurement of the average current flow during one conversion period.The CC-ADC 114 generates an interrupt each time a new accumulate currentconversion has finished if the interrupt is enabled.

While the CC-ADC 114 is converting, the CPU 116 can enter sleep mode andwait for an interrupt from the accumulate current conversion. Afteradding the new accumulate current value for Coulomb Counting, the CPU116 can go back to sleep again. This reduces the CPU workload, andallows more time spent in low power modes, reducing power consumption.

The CC-ADC 114 can generate an interrupt if the result of aninstantaneous current conversion is greater than a programmablethreshold. This allows the detection of a regular current condition.This allows an ultra-low power operation, where the CC-ADC 114 can beconfigured to enter a regular current detection mode with a programmablecurrent sampling interval. The CC-ADC 114 will repeatedly perform oneinstantaneous current conversion, before it is turned off for a timinginterval specified by the user software. This allows operating theregular current detection while keeping the CC-ADC 114 off most of thetime.

Internal Voltage Reference 112

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a low power band-gap voltagereference 112 in accordance with the present invention. The low powerband-gap voltage reference 112 provides the microcontroller with anaccurate on-chip reference voltage (V_(REF)) of 1.100V. This V_(REF) isused as reference for the on-chip voltage regulator 102, the V-ADC 110and the CC-ADC 114 (FIG. 1). In a preferred embodiment, the reference tothe two ADCs 110 and 114 uses a buffer 704 with external decouplingcapacitor 706 to enable excellent noise performance with minimum powerconsumption. The reference voltage V_(REF) _(—) _(P)/_(VREF) _(—) _(N)to the CC-ADC 114 is scaled to match the full scale requirements at thecurrent sense input pins. This configuration also enables concurrentoperation of both V-ADC 110 and CC-ADC 114.

To provide low temperature drift after factory calibration, themicrocontroller 100 includes a two-step calibration algorithm. Thisalgorithm is described, for example, in the before-mentioned U.S.application Ser. No. 10/795,027. The first predetermined temperaturesuch as 85° and the second step is performed at a second predeterminedtemperature such as room temperature. By default, the factorycalibration is 85°, and the result is stored in the Flash memory. Thesecond calibration step can be implemented by a user as an instructionin their test flow. The step requires an accurate input voltage and astable room temperature. The calibration register can also be alteredruntime to implement temperature compensation in software. Accuracy forany temperature inside the temperature range can be achieved.

Also, in another embodiment the microcontroller 100 includes an on-chiptemperature sensor (not shown) for monitoring the die temperature. Avoltage proportional-to-absolute temperature, V_(PTAT), is generated inthe voltage reference circuit and connected to the multiplexer at theV-ADC input. The temperature sensor can be used for runtime compensationof temperature drift in both the voltage reference and the on-chiposcillator 120.

Battery Protection CPU Interface

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of the battery protection CPU interfacein accordance with the present invention. The battery protection CPUinterface comprises current battery protection circuitry (CBPC) 804 andvoltage battery protection circuitry (VBPC) 802, and a plurality ofbattery protection parameter lockable registers 806, 808, 810, 812 and814. The interface is coupled to the FET control 104 and the 8-bit databus 118.

Each protection has an interrupt flag. Each flag can be read and clearedby the CPU 116, and each flag has an individual interrupt enable. Allenabled flags are combined into a single battery protection interruptrequest to the CPU 116. This interrupt can wake up the CPU 116 from anyoperation mode, except power-off. The interrupt flags are cleared bywriting a logic ‘1’ to their bit locations from the CPU 116.

There are neither flags nor status bits indicating that themicrocontroller 100 has entered the power off mode. This is because theCPU 116 is powered down in this mode. The CPU 116 will, however, be ableto detect that it came from a power-off situation by monitoring CPU 116reset flags when it resumes operation.

The over-current and short-circuit protection parameters arereprogrammable to adapt to different types of batteries. The parametersare set by writing to I/O registers. The parameter registers can belocked after the initial configuration, prohibiting any further updatesuntil the next hardware reset.

Secure Parameter Storage

In a preferred embodiment, the battery protection parameters set in thebattery protection parameter registers and the disable function set inthe battery protection disable register can be locked from any furthersoftware updates. Once locked, these registers cannot be accessed untilthe next hardware reset. This provides a safe method for protectingthese registers from unintentional modification by software runaway. Itis recommended that software sets these registers shortly after reset,and then protects these registers from any further updates.

The current battery protection circuitry (CBPC) 804 monitors the chargeand discharge current and disables C-FET, PC-FET, and D-FET if anover-current or short-circuit condition is detected. There are threedifferent programmable detection levels: discharge over-currentdetection level, charge over-current detection level and short-circuitdetection level. The external filter at the PI/NI input pins will causetoo large delay for short-circuit detection. Therefore the separatePPI/NNI inputs are used for current battery protection. There are twodifferent programmable delays for activating current battery protection:short-circuit reaction time and over-current reaction time. Aftercurrent battery protection has been activated, the application softwaremust re-enable the FETs. In one embodiment, the battery protectioncircuitry 106 provides a hold-off time of, for example, one secondbefore software can re-enable the discharge FET. This provides safety incase the application software should unintentionally re-enable thedischarge FET too early.

The activation of a protection also issues an interrupt to the CPU 116.The battery protection interrupts can be individually enabled anddisabled by the CPU 116.

The effect of the various battery protection types in this embodiment isprovided in

TABLE 1 Table 1. Effect of Battery Protection Types Battery InterruptCell Balancing Protection Type Requests C-FET D-FET PC-FET FETs MCU Deepunder- CPU Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled Power-off voltage Reseton detected exit Discharge Entry Disabled Disabled Disabled OperationalOperational over-current and exit protection Charge Entry DisabledDisable Disabled Operational Operational over-current and exitprotection Short- Entry Disabled Disabled Disabled OperationalOperational circuit and exit protection

In order to reduce power consumption, both short-circuit and dischargeover-current protection are automatically deactivated when the D-FET isdisabled. The charge over-current protection is disabled when both theC-FET and the PC-FET are disabled. Note however that charge over-currentprotection is never automatically disabled when any of the C-FET orPC-FETs are controlled by PWM.

Each of these types of battery protections and their features aredescribed in detail hereinbelow.

Deep Under-Voltage Protection

The deep under-voltage protection ensures that the battery cells willnot be discharged deeper than the programmable deep under-voltagedetection level. If the voltage at the VFET pin is below this level fora time longer than the programmable delay time, the FETs areautomatically switched off and the microcontroller enters power-offmode. A deep under-voltage early warning interrupt flag (DUVIF) withinthe battery protection interrupt register will be set 250 ms before themicrocontroller enters power-off. This will give the CPU 116 a chance totake necessary actions before the power is switched off.

The microcontroller 100 will remain in the power-off mode until acharger is connected. When a charger is detected, a normal power-upsequence is started and the microcontroller 100 initializes to defaultstate.

The deep under-voltage delay time and deep under-voltage detection levelare set in the battery protection deep under-voltage register (BPDUV)which is part of the battery protection level register. The parameterregisters can be locked after the initial configuration, prohibiting anyfurther updates until the next hardware reset.

Discharge Over-Current Protection

The current battery protection current monitors the cell current bysampling the voltage at the PPI/NNI input pins. A differentialoperational amplifier amplifies the voltage with a suitable gain. Theoutput from the operational amplifier is compared to an accurate,programmable on-chip voltage reference by an analog comparator. If theshunt resistor voltage is above the discharge over-current detectionlevel for a time longer than over-current protection reaction time, themicrocontroller 100 activates discharge over-current protection. Asampled system clocked by an internal ULP oscillator is used forover-current and short-circuit protection. This ensures a reliable clocksource, off-set cancellation and low power consumption.

When the discharge over-current protection is activated, the externalD-FET, PC-FET, and C-FET are disabled and a current protection timer isstarted. This timer ensures that the FETs are disabled for apredetermined period of time (i.e., one second). The applicationsoftware must then set the DFE and CFE bits in the FET control andstatus register to re-enable normal operation when this is consideredsafe. If the D-FET is re-enabled while the loading of the battery stillis too large, the discharge over-current protection will be activatedagain.

Charge Over-Current Protection

If the voltage at the PPI/NNI pins is above a charge over-currentdetection level for a time longer than over-current protection reactiontime, the microcontroller 100 activates charge over-current protection.

When the charge over-current protection is activated, the externalD-FET, PC-FET, and C-FET are disabled and a current protection timer isstarted. This timer ensures that the FETs are disabled for at least onesecond. The DFE and CFE bits in the FET control and status register 302(FIG. 3) are set to re-enable normal operation when this is consideredsafe. If the C-FET is re-enabled and the charger continues to supply toohigh of a current, the charge over-current protection will be activatedagain.

Short-Circuit Protection

A second level of high current detection is provided to enable a fasterresponse time to very large discharge currents. If a discharge currentlarger than the short-circuit detection level is present for a periodlonger than short-circuit reaction time, the short-circuit protection isactivated.

When the short-circuit protection is activated, the D-FET, PC-FET, andC-FET are disabled and a current protection timer is started. This timerensures that the D-FET, PCFET, and C-FET are disabled for at least onesecond. The application software must then set the DFE and CFE bits inthe FET control and status register 302 (FIG. 3) to re-enable normaloperation when this is considered safe. If the D-FET is re-enabledbefore the cause of the short-circuit condition is removed, theshort-circuit protection will be activated again.

Power Consumption

To avoid damaging the battery cells during long-term storage, it isimportant for the battery itself to consume as little power as possible.The single chip implementation helps reduce system power consumption byeliminating external components and collecting all functionality in onesingle package. In addition, the microcontroller 100 features variouslow-power modes called sleep modes. Sleep modes enable the applicationto shut down unused modules in the microcontroller 100, thereby savingpower. The microcontroller 100 provides four sleep modes allowing theuser to tailor the power consumption to the application's requirement:

1. Idle mode, in which the CPU 116 is stopped but all peripheralfunctions continue operating.

2. ADC noise reduction mode, which improves the noise environment forthe ADC while saving power. If the V-ADC 110 (FIG. 1) is enabled, aconversion starts automatically once this mode is entered.

3. Power-save mode, in which a fast RC oscillator is stopped. Only thebattery protection circuitry 106 and slow oscillators are kept running,as well as the CC-ADC 114 (FIG. 1) for current measurements.

4. Power-down mode, in which both the fast RC and slow RC clocks arehalted. Battery protection, a watchdog timer 124 (FIG. 1) or externalinterrupt, or an SMBus address match can wake up the device.

5. Power-off mode enables the voltage regulator 102 (FIG. 1) to shut offpower to the CPU 116, leaving only the voltage regulator 102 and thecharger detect circuitry 128 to be operational. In this mode themicrocontroller 100 ensures that the battery cells are not damaged ifthe voltage is too low.

Table 2 shows key power consumption figures for one embodiment of themicrocontroller 100.

Condition Current Draw Active 1 MHz 1.2 mA Idle 1 MHz 0.6 mA Power-save90 μA Power-down 20 μA Power-off 2 μA

A system and method in accordance with the present invention providesfor a microcontroller which includes battery management and protection.The microcontroller provides for a single chip device which includesbattery protection and management. This one-chip solution saves designcost and PCB space in addition to broadening the functionality of thesmart battery application. With the accuracy of the microcontroller, thecharge status of the battery can be predicted more accurately andtherefore effectively increases actual battery capacity.

Although the present invention has been described in accordance with theembodiments shown, one of ordinary skill in the art will readilyrecognize that there could be variations to the embodiments and thosevariations would be within the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. Accordingly, many modifications may be made by one ofordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims.

1. A battery controller comprising: a processor system including a databus; a battery interface coupled to the processor system, wherein abattery to be coupled to the battery interface comprises a plurality ofcells, wherein the battery interface includes a plurality of inputs tothe battery controller capable of operating in a range of about 4 voltsto about 25 volts; and a battery management system, including aplurality of cell-balancing field effect transistors coupled to the databus, wherein a cell balancing field effect transistor is to be coupledto a cell of the plurality of cells, wherein the battery controller is asingle integrated circuit chip.
 2. The battery controller of claim 1,including a voltage regulator circuit coupled to the processor, whereinthe battery interface includes an input to the voltage regulator circuitcapable of operating in a range of about 4 volts to about 25 volts. 3.The battery controller of claim 2, wherein the voltage regulator circuitincludes a power consumption control module configured to: detect whenthe battery controller enters a low power mode; and place the voltageregulator circuit in a reduced power consumption mode when the low powermode of the battery controller is detected.
 4. The battery controller ofclaim 1, including an analog-to-digital converter circuit coupled to theprocessor, wherein the battery interface includes an input to theanalog-to-digital converter circuit capable of operating in a range ofabout 4 volts to about 25 volts.
 5. The battery controller of claim 1,including a battery charger detect circuit coupled to the processor,wherein the battery interface includes an input to the battery chargerdetect circuit capable of operating in a range of about 4 volts to about25 volts.
 6. The battery controller of claim 1, wherein the batteryinterface includes an output from the battery controller capable ofoperating in a range of about 4 volts to about 25 volts.
 7. The batterycontroller of claim 6, including a field effect transistor drivercircuit coupled to the processor, wherein the battery interface includesan output from the field effect transistor driver circuit capable ofoperating in a range of about 4 volts to about 25 volts.
 8. The batterycontroller of claim 7, wherein the field effect transistor drivercircuit is configured to control a field effect transistor included in abattery charging circuit.
 9. The battery controller of claim 7, whereinthe field effect transistor driver circuit is configured to control afield effect transistor included in a battery discharging circuit. 10.The battery controller of claim 7, wherein the field effect transistordriver circuit is configured to control a field effect transistorincluded in a battery pre-charging circuit.
 11. The battery controllerof claim 7, wherein the field effect transistor driver circuit includesa pulse width modulation circuit.
 12. The battery controller of claim 1,wherein each cell balancing field effect transistor of the plurality ofcell-balancing field effect transistors is directly controlled byreprogrammable application software via a control register coupled tothe data bus.
 13. A monolithic integrated circuit chip comprising: aprocessor system including a data bus; a battery interface coupled tothe processor system, wherein a battery to be coupled to the batteryinterface comprises a plurality of cells, wherein the battery interfaceincludes a plurality of inputs to the monolithic integrated circuit chipthat are capable of operating in a range of about 4 volts to about 25volts; and a battery management system, including a plurality ofcell-balancing field effect transistors coupled to the data bus, whereina cell balancing field effect transistor is to be coupled to a cell ofthe plurality of cells.
 14. The integrated circuit chip of claim 1,including a voltage regulator circuit coupled to the processor, whereinthe battery interface includes an input to the voltage regulator circuitcapable of operating in a range of about 4 volts to about 25 volts. 15.The integrated circuit chip of claim 1, including an analog-to-digitalconverter circuit coupled to the processor, wherein the batteryinterface includes an input to the analog-to-digital converter circuitcapable of operating in a range of about 4 volts to about 25 volts. 16.The integrated circuit chip of claim 1, including a battery chargerdetect circuit coupled to the processor, wherein the battery interfaceincludes an input to the battery charger detect circuit capable ofoperating in a range of about 4 volts to about 25 volts.
 17. Theintegrated circuit chip of claim 1, wherein the battery interfaceincludes an output from the integrated circuit chip capable of operatingin a range of about 4 volts to about 25 volts.
 18. The integratedcircuit chip of claim 17, including a field effect transistor drivercircuit coupled to the processor, wherein the battery interface includesan output from the field effect transistor driver circuit capable ofoperating in a range of about 4 volts to about 25 volts.
 19. Theintegrated circuit chip of claim 18, wherein the field effect transistordriver circuit is configured to control a field effect transistorincluded in a battery charging circuit.
 20. The integrated circuit chipof claim 18, wherein the field effect transistor driver circuit isconfigured to control a field effect transistor included in a batterydischarging circuit.